


Pearls of Wisdom

by aph_pasta



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Drabble, Drabble Collection, F/F, F/M, Gen, Hetalia Writers Discord, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-14
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2019-08-01 21:25:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 3,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16292087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aph_pasta/pseuds/aph_pasta
Summary: A collection of drabbles, mostly written for Hetalia Writer's Discord drabble night.





	1. Time (N. Italy, Poland)

“I’m scared,” Feliks whispered. He reached across and pressed his hand down against the grass so it wouldn’t block his view of Feliciano’s face. “I’m scared that next time things will be different. I’m scared that we’ll change more and we’ll be totally different people- completely different countries. I’m scared we won’t stay friends or that something will happen and things will get awkward.”

 

Feliciano’s hand met Feliks’s, their fingers intertwining and grass being trapped between their palms.

 

“I stayed with you through the end of the commonwealth, didn’t I?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“And I stayed with you through the partitions.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“And you stayed with me through the wars, and through all my different governments, and nothing’s changed.”

 

“But what if-” Feliks was cut off by Feliciano reaching out and lightly pressing his fingertips over his lips.

 

“I promise I’ll always be your friend, forever. I’ve known you for centuries and I’m going to know you for many more, and I promise nothing will change. I promise.”


	2. Time, Isolated (Prussia/Canada)

Matthew fumbled around for his glasses, mumbling “can you please wait a moment?” as though that would make his phone stop buzzing. He eventually found them and put them on, then grabbed his phone off the nightstand and answered the call.

 

“Hi Mattie!”

 

“Gil, it’s the middle of the night,” he sighed, laying back down and squeezing his eyes shut because the light from his phone was hurting them.

 

“No, it’s 10 in the morning.”

 

“For you it may be, but for me it’s the middle of the night. Can I hang up and go back to sleep, or is this really important?”

 

“It’s important! Very important! I’m lonely and I miss you a lot!”

 

Matthew wanted to be angry because that really wasn’t a good reason for Gilbert to wake him up, but he just couldn’t find it in himself to get mad. “Oh, Gilbert,” he murmured, frowning slightly. “I’ll be in Germany in a week for the conference about tariffs. I’ll see you then.”

 

“But I miss you now.”

 

“I miss you now too.”


	3. Dreams (Russia/Nyo!America)

“Can you stop moving so much? I'm trying to sleep!” Amelia snapped her head up and stared at the lumpy silhouette that was Ivan. 

 

He shifted again and she moved closer, until her chest was almost against his back. His eyes were squeezed shut, lips pressed together in a way that told her he was clenching his jaw. “Hey big guy, you should stop doing that, you're gonna hurt your teeth,” she reached forward and stroked his cheek, feeling the cool of his skin and the prickle of his stubble. 

 

Ivan seemed to calm down at that so she kept stroking his face, until he was still and she was tired again.

 

“I'm here, big guy,” Amelia murmured, kissing the back of his neck as she laid back down to sleep.


	4. Dreams (Nyo!Poland/Hungary)

“Come on, tell me what you want.”

 

Iszabella shook her head. “No, it'll never happen,”

 

“Not if you keep thinking like that.”

 

“Okay, fine. I want to look like a princess, like with a tiara and everything. And I want to get married in a church, but it has to be a pretty one with stained glass windows. I want to write my own vows and afterwards, at the reception, I want a chocolate cake, a vanilla cake, and a cake that's vanilla and chocolate. And at the very end, instead of riding out in a car, I want a horse-drawn carriage.”

 

Erzsebet shrugged. “It might not happen exactly that way, but that doesn't mean you should just give up.”

 

“Yeah, you're right.”


	5. Skyline (Prussia, Canada)

“So they forgot about you too, huh?” Matthew turned around and leaned his back against the metal railing of the balcony. 

 

“What makes you think they forgot about me?”

 

“You're not inside enjoying hors d'ouvres with everyone else and talking about foreign policy,”

 

Gilbert sighed and shook his head. “I’m not a country, I can't have foreign policy,” he walked over to the balcony and slipped off his suit jacket, letting it hang over his arm. He leaned next to Matthew, staring out at the city before him. The buildings were taller than most he'd seen in the nearly 500 years he'd been alive.

 

“Well even if they don't want you in there, you're always welcome out here with me,” Matthew lit a cigarette and held it out to Gilbert, an offering of friendship.


	6. Lowest, Rebirth (Lithuania, Poland)

“Come on baby, come on,” Toris whimpers. He wants to hold Feliks's hand right now, he wants to kiss his hair and forehead and cheeks.

 

He can't. He doesn't even know if Feliks is still alive, because the last time anyone gave him any information, it was to tell him that his heart stopped and they didn't know if he would survive this.

 

Toris paces in the waiting room among rows of plastic chairs. He can't sit still. Someone walks in through the double doors and they're coming towards him and suddenly he can't breathe.

 

They're wearing a green mask and there's blood staining the edges of their sleeves. They walk more briskly and when Toris realizes he can't see their expression, he's terrified.

 

“Feliks just got out of surgery, he's doing much better now.” 

 


	7. Footsteps (Russia and the Soviet Union)

Ivan knows the sound of every one of them. 

 

Raivis's are quick and timid, and he has to listen hard for them because he's so light he barely even gets the stairs to creak.

 

Eduard's are slower, gentler, and the sound of dress shoes against hardwood is quite distinctive.

 

Toris's are heavy, dragging along with the weight of sadness. The stairs never creak when he walks up them, because he knows to avoid the middle of each step and the sixth one altogether.

 

Yekaterina’s are excited. There's no other way to put it, because she bounces through the halls, leaving the loud thump of bare feet against carpet.

 

Natalya's are quiet, even more so than Raivis's. The swish of her dress is what gives her away, because there's no way she can be silent while wearing something so large and impractical.

 

And then, when they're all gone, Ivan realizes he prefers the cacophony of everyone walking around all at once to the deafening silence of solidarity.


	8. Rebirth (Nyo!Poland)

At first, Iszabella hadn't seen any changes. She'd been frustrated when her voice wouldn't get any higher and she still found herself shaving every morning.

 

Everyone had said that her first dose of estrogen would be magical, but even after weeks and weeks of taking the supposed miracle pill, she didn't see anything.

 

Every morning, she looked in the mirror and scrutinized, whittling away time as she stared and poked and searched. Nothing.

 

Until, one day, there was something. It was barely there, and she probably wouldn't have noticed it had she not been looking for it, but her hips were wider, just by a centimeter or so.

 

She felt like an entirely new person.


	9. Escape (Hungary/Nyo!Poland

“Are you sure you're alright?”

 

Iszabella bites her lip and looks down at her feet. She doesn't want to say it, but there's no reason not to. “No.”

 

Erzsebet understands immediately and wraps and arm around Iszabella, holding her close as they wade through the crowds until they're outside, standing ankle-deep in snow while music blares in the background.

 

“What's going on?”

 

“There's too many people. Natalya just said it was going to be a few friends but it obviously didn't end up that way,” Iszabella mumbles. She lays her forehead against Erzsebet's shoulder and the woman reflexively wraps an arm around her.

 

“That's alright. We can stay out here for as long as you need.”


	10. Cloth (Nyo!Poland, Nyo!Hungary, Hungary)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've just always really liked the idea of Hungary and Nyo!Poland as a family.

Iszabella didn't think she could do this. It wasn't that she didn't know what to do- Erzsebet had spent days showing her exactly how to wrap the blanket around their son, tucking it under his legs and folding the sides over like a burrito. It was that she was scared of hurting him.

 

Daniel was tiny, with a head that fit just right in the palm of her hand. She'd been scared at first to even hold him, because he'd been so fragile when he was born, and even though now she was confident that she could hold him and even carry him around the house, she was still scared that she'd swaddle him too tightly or not tightly enough and she had no idea how to do these things.

 

“Here, let me help,” Erzsebet said warmly, a slight laugh in her voice. She came up behind Iszabella and rested her hands over hers, guiding her fingers to pick up the blanket and fold it over one side of the baby's stomach, then the other. “You're doing great,” she assured her, before helping her fold over the last bit and pulling away. 

 

Iszabella smiled down at her handiwork, then carefully slipped one hand under Daniel's back and the other under his head, gently lifting him up and holding him close to her chest.


	11. Orange (Nyo!Poland, Hungary)

Iszabella stood on her tiptoes, one hand clutching the hem of her skirt, which was filled with oranges, the other reaching up to grab a fruit off one of the tree's higher branches. Just as her hand grasped around the orange, she tripped forward and lost her grip on the skirt. Oranges tumbled down, scattering all over the ground.

 

Erzsebet couldn't help but laugh. “I told you to bring a basket for a reason!” She said, walking over and starting to pick up the fallen oranges and put them in her own half-filled basket.

 

While Erzsebet picked up the oranges, Iszabella tried once more to reach the one still on the branch. Even when she stood on the very tip of her toes, though, it was too high up. She pouted, and was about to complain about being too short, when she felt someone come behind her and lift her into the air. She grabbed the orange and as soon as it was off the vine, Erzsebet spun around with her in her arms, laughing.


	12. Winter (Poland/Lithuania)

This December has been especially harsh. For the past few days, every morning Feliks has woken up to a fresh layer of snow on the ground, the indents from the previous day's footprints gone. The day before, Tolys went out and chopped up some logs, and now they're enjoying the fruits of his labor, sitting together on the couch in front of a blazing fire in the fireplace. Feliks is in Tolys's lap and they're both wrapped in a heavy quilt. Tolys's head rests just under his chin and he's lazily stroking his thick, curly hair. 

 

Tolys fixes the blanket when it starts to slip off them, and he smiles to himself when after awhile Feliks stops stroking his hair and he feels his breath slow as he starts to fall asleep. He pulls back so he's partially laying down, and Feliks is laying with his head on his chest. His hair makes a golden halo around his face, and his lips are parted just slightly. The warmth of the room has given his cheeks a slight pink tint, and when Tolys touches his temple to brush some hair out of his face, he's pleasantly warm. Tolys wraps his arms around Feliks, holding him close, protectively, and closes his eyes as well.


	13. Trust (Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Italy)

He made a good choice trusting him with his life. He’s shown time and time again that he will protect him. And in return, Feliks promises he will always care for and love him. He promises in kisses in the morning and bandages for wounds and soup when Tolys is sick.

 

Feliciano knows what he would never trust anyone else to. He knows his worst fears and what keeps him up at night. He knows that he gets nervous when people watch him eat. He knows with a quick glance how Feliks feels, and has no trouble figuring out what's bothering him. He knows how to calm him down, how to make him smile when he feels like he never will again.

 

He trusts her advice, because it's never wrong. Erzsebet has a mind sharper than a sword and she always knows what he should do, whether it's what to give for someone's birthday or how to deal with political issues. She's been there for years, and he knows she'll be there for many more.


	14. River, Whisper (Hungary/Nyo!Poland)

Moonlight shimmers against Iszabella's hair and laughter shimmers in her eyes. She grabs Erzsebet's hand tighter, a finger against her lips as they run to tell her to keep quiet. Finally, the tight clumps of trees break apart into a clearing. There's a river in the middle, sparkly from starlight.

 

Iszabella rolls up the legs of her pajama pants and kicks off her shoes. She tests the water with a toe, before stepping in. The water reaches mid-calf and it's cool, but not cold. Erzsebet follows, standing in front of her. “So this is what you were so excited to show me. It really is a beautiful place,” she whispers. Iszabella blushes and nods. She reaches out, taking Erzsebet's hand.

 

They just stand for awhile, water running gently around their legs, before Erzsebet moves her hand to rest against Iszabella's cheek. “Thank you for showing me this.” As thanks, she leans in and gently kisses Isabella, who blushes against her hand and shyly kisses back.


	15. Dance (Nyo!Poland, Lithuania)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for eating disorder and character death

The first time he danced with her, they laughed until their chests hurt because he had no idea how to dance, and Iszabella had to guide him the entire time. She'd held his hands and pointed out where his feet should go, and at the end he was tired, but in a good way. The second time they danced was when she brought him to lessons, which he absolutely needed, but she  _ didn't  _ because she knew exactly what she was doing and would put her feet and her hands and her hips in just the right place and move like waves on the ocean. He'd needed more than just one lesson. In fact, he'd needed twelve before he could keep up with Iszabella, and even then she was faster and smoother and more beautiful than he could ever be. When they danced for the first time after all those lessons, it had been a night he'd remember his entire life. She'd skipped right past the dinner laid out for the dancers, too excited to eat, and pulled Tolys onto the smooth wooden floor, laughing and spinning until her dress was a blue of pink and blue and sparkles. At the end of the night, he'd kissed her, holding her white kitten heels in one hand and the small of her back in the other. They found time to dance every week, in nightclubs and at parties and once in front of a group of seniors who had told Iszabella and Tolys that they wished they had their youth and energy. She was light when they danced, floating on the tips of her toes and the tulle of her dress. Until one day, she was heavy, feet dragging against the floor until she couldn't move them anymore, and all of her weight falling into Tolys's arms. He wondered then if she'd always been this frail, if her hair had always been this fragile, and when she came to, laughing and telling him that she was  _ fine _ and he was worked up over nothing, he wondered if he'd noticed too late. The next time they danced, her dress was papery-plastic, and his hand rested against the knots in the back of it and the ridge of her spine. They danced slower than they ever had before, bare feet and bare skin and her heartbeat keeping time. The last time they danced they used only their hands, the papery skin and bones of Iszabella's fingers laying against Tolys's, moving in something like a rhythm. They danced to the beat of her heartbeat, Tolys rubbing his thumb over the side of her hand as it slowed, then pressing his fingers for the last time against hers and holding still when it stopped.


	16. Beloved (Nyo!Poland/Lithuania)

 

It's unfair how beautiful Iszabella is when she dances. It's unfair how light shines on the back of her heel and the side of her hip and the curtain of blonde hair falling away from her face. She's bent to the side, a leg in the air, reaching for the sky. Tolys holds his breath when he sees her heel begin to rise off the floor, and in one swift movement, her entire body is held up by just the very tip of her toes. 

 

She tilts back down, gracefully starting to spin as soon as her other foot hits the ground. Her arms are bent in front of her, fingers just centimeters away from touching, and Tolys is mesmerized by the rhythm, the way her toes brush against the ground before she lifts them once again to her knee, over and over until he wonders if she's dizzy.

 

The only rule is ‘look but don't touch’, but Tolys can't help but touch when she walks over to him and asks him to join her. He gets to his feet and rest his hands on her waist, brushing his thumbs over her soft skin. When he lifts her in the air, letting her spread her arms and fly above him, he can hear her laughing, clear as bells, the most beautiful sound in the world. 


	17. In The Middle (BTT)

“We've always loved you,” Francis said, his voice slurring and the sweetness of champagne on his breath 

 

“I've always loved you more than he has,” Antonio replied. He was drunker than Francis, and every kiss he pressed on Gilbert's neck missed it's mark.

 

“No no, I love you more,” Francis looped and arm around Gilbert's waist and pulled him closer.

 

“Yeah, but I love you most,” Antonio kissed his lips, sloppy and tasting of wine.

 

Gilbert decided that for once, he liked being in the middle.


	18. Beginning (Nyo!Lithuania/Nyo!Russia)

 

Rūta never should have agreed to going ice skating. Or at least, maybe she should have asked for one of those little penguins to hold on to, so she wouldn't be gripping the wall of the rink for dear life. Amelia had already been around the rink five or six times, and Rūta noticed a woman on figure skates in the middle, doing spins and twirls as though it was the easiest thing in the world. 

 

She tried to move forward, even just a little so the group of children about to come by wouldn't knock her over, but her skate slide on the ice and before she knew it, she was face down on the ice.

 

Rūta saw a pair of heeled white skates, and looked up to see the future skater from the middle of the rink. She helped her up, taking her hands so she wouldn't fall again. “You do not know how to skate? Do not worry, I will teach you.”


	19. Melody (Prussia, Nyo! Poland)

Gilbert had never really thought that the piano in Iszabella's living room was ever actually used. That was really a stupid thing to think, he realized as he watched Iszabella's hands dance over the keys, because what kind of person bought a ridiculously large, expensive grand piano just as decoration?

 

The piano bench was more than big enough for two, and when he came to sit on it, he was reminded of music lessons on friday mornings with his cousin when they were children. Roderich had gone on to play for the city orchestra and well, Gilbert didn't share his gift.

 

“Do you play?”

 

“Huh?”

 

Iszabella stopped and let her fingers hover just over the keys. “I asked if you play.” She shifted towards him and took his right hand, placing his fingers gently on the keys. “Here, I'll teach you a duet. It's an easy one, so you'll be able to do it even if you've never played the piano before.”


	20. Bottle (Poland, Lithuania)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for alcohol abuse.

His hand had slipped. He'd been holding the neck of the bottle one, two seconds ago, and then he hadn't been, and there were shards of glass all around his feet. 

 

Feliks tried to step away, but he felt like he was going to fall and someone was telling him not to move. He collapsed into the waiting arms, smelling pine and dirt and dust between the yellowed pages of books. 

 

“What-”

 

A gentle, familiar voice shushed him, calloused fingers brushed hair away from his forehead and tears away from his cheeks. “Let's go to bed, Po.” 


	21. Go With The Flow (Nyo! Poland, Nyo! Lithuania)

It was obvious that Rūta had no idea what she was doing, and every time she stepped on Iszabella's feet and nearly tripped, she could feel that she was nervous.

 

Iszabella pulled her hand away from Rūta’s and gently pressed against her shoulders so she would step back. “You're overthinking this. You have to trust me.”

 

Rūta sighed. “I'm trying. Really. It's just so hard.” She stepped forward once more and allowed Iszabella to take one of her hands and place the other on her waist. 

 

She leaned forward, and whispered next to Rūta's ear, “don't think, just move,” before she pulled her into a graceful spin, stepping forward and back and forward and back until they were twirling across the room to the sound of Chopin.


End file.
